I’d like to preface this post by saying I’m strongly pro-carb and pro-gluten. That being said, I’m all about going with the least processed options when it comes to my food, and I do love to experiment. So when a friend of mine said her doc recommended cutting wheat/gluten from her diet to potentially help with her migraines, I figured it was as good an excuse as any to make a tentative foray into the world of gluten free baking. And when I saw this on my monthly visit to the Daring Baker Challenge board:

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I figured that a gluten free quick bread was just what the doctor ordered, literally! And so I got to work, did some research on the interwebs, and in between interesting decorating ideas, pictures of Ryan Gosling, adorable kittehs, and of course, the requisite FB status update checks, I found a recipe to start with here . However, the rosemary in the original recipe needed to go. I’m not a fan of christmas tree flavored desserts. So I decided to go with blueberry as the flavor compliment to the lemon. And when I stirred up the batter (which was super easy to do, once I made the trip to New Seasons to get the various starches necessary) I saw a problem with my initial plan. This batter is THIN. Like almost crepe batter thin. Like, a layer of blueberries on the bottom of the pan thin. So I tried something different. I poured the batter (sans blueberries) into the pan, let it bake halfway to semi solidify, and then dropped the blueberries on top. They sank about halfway in, rather than all the way to the bottom, and in general behaved themselves. When the bread was done, I was bad and didn’t wait to cut into it like I was supposed to, because I wanted to try it out on my daughters for dinner. And the verdict? They LOVED it. And at the very least it’s a little bit healthier for them since it used brown rice flour in place of the white flour. I can’t wait to play around with the recipe and make some more for my friend. Lime coconut quick bread, anyone?

The rest of the Daring Bakers’ quick bread themed adventures can be found here. Can’t wait to see what they came up with!